We’ve written here about William Burroughs and his obsession with the number 23. I happened to come across the story recently and decided to stick it up on a Synchronicity FB page. I got an interesting response back almost immediately.
First, here’s the story:
Quite often, people who see the same numbers, like 11:11, over and over feel they’re being stalked by the numbers, hunted, pursued. That’s how writer William Burroughs felt after numerous synchronicities with the number 23.
In Tangiers in the early 1960s, the author of Naked Lunch knew a Captain Clark who ran a ferry from Tangiers to Spain. Clark boasted that he’d been running the ferry for twenty-three years without an accident and on the same day of the boast, the ferry sank, killing Clark and everyone on board. That same evening Burroughs was mulling over this tragedy and happened to turn on the radio. He heard about the crash of a New York-Miami airplane piloted by a Captain Clark. The flight number was 23.
The synchronicity shocked Burroughs and he began compiling a list of coincidences involving the number 23. In 1965, his friend and fellow author Robert Anton Wilson also started compiling a list about the number. One of the personal oddities Burroughs found concerned his daughters, who were born August 23 and February 23. In 1977, he wrote about this weirdness for the Fortean Times. It appeared in issue 23.
And here’s the response I received…
JY – did you know you typed that at 23:23 my time ??
JY – i bet you did
Rob – I did not!
Rob –…Unless the Universe and I are conspiring against your doubts!
Rob – In fact, I did not know it was 6:23 Eastern U.S. time when I sent it. And I definintely am not in tune with your time zone. Where are you – Scotland?
JY –yup
JY – ou know Rob i am entirely used to the number synch thing .. if anyone writes about a number synch i just know it will be that time o’clock ..
I wonder if everyone has a specific number that would resonate if they payed attention to it? Maybe it has something to do with where we are in the hologram (if you believe in the Holographic Universe theory).
You might be right, Nancy!
P.S. Here’s an interesting thing about 23:23.
LIFE =23 OMEGA = 23
DEATH = 20 ALPHA = 20
This has always seemed incongruous to me. Because ALPHA has been interpreted as “Beginning” or “Birth”, and OMEGA as “Ending” or “Death”. Yet the frequencies are opposing, which tends to make me wonder about “mirror image” in our lives…hard to explain….I would think Life and Alpha would have the same frequency, and Death and Omega would have the same frequency. But they don’t. A puzzle…..Do we actually exist in our corporeal Being as mere reflections of a different and greater Reality?
If an esoteric numerologist has an individual’s numbers, (name and birth data), that individual’s experiences throughout life at any given time can be accurately tracked.
Math is a science. It can’t be manipulated to try to make a certain number or a certain
combination of numbers “fit” a particular situation. 23:23 is one of the most frequent combinations noticed, as is 11:11. When and where they appear in a person’s day-to-day life has a significant interpretation regarding their meanings. As Mr. Spock would say, “It’s fascinating”!
Watched a sunrise this morn…. over your southern waters….. first breached the horizon at blah blah… completed it’s exist of the night at blah:00?
Holy Moly! I do a daily morning I Ching reading. I just got hex 23 4th line changing to #35. I seem to be synchronized a lot to your page.
Good one, Adele!
Being born on September 23rd I’m right into the number 23 thing myself.
Ha, Daz!